Turbo ship-steadying device.



3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Patented Apr. 14, 1914.

Q 0 0 i g E. THOMSON.

TURBO SHIP STBADYING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED SBPT,19,1913

Q 0 O o Inventor:

Elihu Thomson,

Jqtt'lj.

Witnesses E. THOMSON.

TURBO SHIP 3 TEADYING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT.19,1913.

1,093,159. Patented Apr. 14, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Witnesses Inventor,

lihu Thomson,

Jq'btg.

E. THOMSON.

TURBO SHIP STEADYING DEVICE,

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 19, 1913.

1,093, 1 59. Patented Apr. 14, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Witnesses I nvenbofi W Elihu Thomson, Z 5 %i WW oqbbg UNITED STATES PA NT OFFICE.

ELIHU THOMSON, OF S-WAMPSCOTT, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

TURBO SHIP-STEADYING DEVICE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIHU TnoMsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Swampscott, county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Turbo Ship- Stcadying Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to marine engineering, and its object is two-fold, the first one being to provide a simplification of that system of driving steamships electrically wherein a steam turbine operating at high elliciency and at high speed is used to generate the current which is carried to electric motors actuating the propeller shafts.

The second object of my invention is to utilize the rotating parts of the turbo-generator as a great gyroscope to steady the ship and reduceher rolling.

In 1904, E. O. Schlick patented a ship steadying apparatus involving the use of one or more gyroscopes, each rotating on an upright shaft in a frame capable of oscillation on an axis athwart the ship, a scheme Which has proved to be of practical value in diminishing the rolling of the vessel in a Seaway. Instead of employing such a special gyroscopic apparatus, I equip the ship with a vertical shaft turbo-generator which has heavy rotating parts, such as the bucket wheel or Wheels, the rotor of the generator and their common shaft, and I mount these parts in a frame supported on massive trunnions whose axis is athwartships, so that the entire machine constitutes a gyroscope. By means of suitable yielding connections between the machine and the hull of the ship, the tendency to roll is almost wholly counteracted.

I prefer to use a condensing turbine having a single wheel of large diameter and lenty of clearance, with a peripheral speed approximately one-half the velocity of the steam reaching it from the nozzles. This arrangement obviates the necessity of using additional wheels or stages. The whole worli can be accomplished in one stage. Such a wheel can be made from seventeen to twenty feet in diameter, and be driven at about 1,800 revolutions per minute, which will give it a peripheral speed of 1,800 to 1,900 feet per second, or about one-half the velocity of the steam issuing from expanding noczics. With such a diameter and Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed September 19, 1913.

. chest 15 mounted on the plate 4.

Patented Apr. 14, 1914.

Serial No. 790,796.

speed, a single wheel can be provided with a nozzle arc admitting enough steam to deall that is required for the propulsion of a large steamship. The gyroscopic action of such a big machine is ample to exert a powerful anti-rolling efi'ect upon the vessel.

The invention will be better understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an end elevation of the machine, partly in section; Fig. 2 is a plan view of certain portions of the system; Fig. 3is a sectional elevation at right angles to Fig. 1, and Fig. -l is a detail. view of one of the hydraulic buffers.

Secured to the hull 1 of the ship are two pedestals 2 located in a vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the hull. In the upper ends of these pedestals are journal boxes for the tubular trunnions 3, 3 which are integral with or secured to the frame of the turbo-generator. Said frame comprises a rigid circular plate 1 on which is sup-ported the stool 5 and generator casing 6. At the top of said casing is a bearing from which hangs the turbine shaft. This bearing preferably consists of a tier of friction washers 7 on which rests a collar 8 at the top of the vertical turbine shaft 9. The washers are inclosed in an oil chamber 10. The shaft passes down through a guide bearing 11 in the plate 4 and into a condenser base hereinafter described. Just below the plate 4, the bucket wheel 12 is secured on the shaft. This is preferably a single wheel of large diameter With a single row of buckets 13 to which steam is delivered by nozzles 14 receiving it from a steam A speed "governor at 16 controls the nozzle valves in any suitable manner through the rods 17 and levers 18. The construction of these parts need not be described in detail as it follows standard practice, and maintains, in the usual manner, a fairly uniform speed of driving by controlling the admission of steam to the nozzle arc.

Steam is brought from. the boilers to the turbine by a main 19 which is connected by a swivel joint 20 with a pipe running through the tubular tru urn on fl to the steam chest 15. The pipe- 15 preferably packed in heat insulating materal 22, as is also the steam. chest. By

velop many thousand horse power, at least.

adjusting the peripheral speed of the bucket wheel to one half that of the steamflowing through the expanding nozzles, the machine will have its best eflicienoy. After giving up its energy to the wheel the steam enters the condenser 23, which is a closed chamber suspended from the plate 4. A plurality of water tubes 2-1 traverse the chamber in a fore and aft direction, being fixed in opposite walls thereof. The condensed steam and any air that may be entrained therein collect in a hot well 2-3 at the bottom of'the condenser from which they are pumped to a separator, whence the water is returned to the boilers. I preferably employ a centrifugal hot well pump 26 whose runner is secured to the lower end of the turbine shaft. The pump delivers the contents of the hot Well through a pipe 27 to the tubular trunnion 3 from which it is led off by a pipe 28 to the separator.

The condenser is suspended in a stationary water tank 29, and a septum 30 is secured to the outside of the condenser in the plane of the axis of the tubular trunnions, dividing said tank into two compartments. While the septum can thus move with the condenser as the machine swings on its trunnions, yet it fits closely enough to the inside of the tank 29 to prevent any great'amount of water passing by its edges. The condensing water is pumped into one compartment of the tank through a conduit 31 and after flowing through the condenser tubes 9-1 to the other compartment it. leaves by the conduit 32. Sea water is used for con- (lensing and it is pumped continuously through the tank and condenser. There should naturally be a dili'erenrc of head between the two compartments, so that the septum run as high up as possible to prevent any leakage of water over the upper edge thereof from one compartment; to the other.

When the massive bucket wheel and generator rotor are revolving at high speed their gyrescopic client is powerful. Any attempt of the ship to roll causes the turbogeneralor to swing on its trunnions. In order that [his motion shall have an effect on the ship it is yieldingly opposed by suitable lnlli'ers, preferably consisting of hydraulic plungers 33 working in cylinders 3st which are located in a fore and aft plane and com-- munnratc at our end with a water supply,

1referal)ly the tank 28). The cylinders are firmly tied to the frame of the ship, and each has a bypass 3-5 controlled by a valve 36, the whole mnstituting the familiar cataract check. The plungers are connected by rods 37 to the frame of the tiul' ogenorator, as for instance to arms 38 bolted to the plate -11, All these parts must be massive enough to sustain the enormous strains to which they will be subjected. The checking action of the buffers is assisted by the septum, which requires considerable force to move it back and forth in the water tank.

Assuming that the turbine is rotating at say 1,800 revolutions per minute, if now the vessel attempts to roll the gyroscopic action tends to swing the whole turl'io-generator on its trunnions one way or the other. This movement is resisted by the septum and by the hydraulic plunge-rs which yield more or less slowly depending upon the adjustment of the valves The turning moment of the turbo-generator thus exerts itself upon the ship in a fore and aft plane and tends to cause it to pitch. But as it is far more ditlicult to give the ship a pitching motion than a rolling motion, the result is a practical elimination of the rolling motion without any appreciable increase in pitching. By thus utilizing the machine necessary for propulsion to perform also the function of counteracting the rolling motion, I have attained an important result without adding to the weight of the ship or the complexity of its mechanism.

In 'Fig. 2 there are shown, diagrammatically, two-propeller shafts 39 with a polyphase electric motor 40 on each one, electrieally connected to the generator driven by the turbine. The usual control apparatus for the motors is not. shown, nor the exoiter for the generator, as these features form no part of the present invention.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes I have herein described the principle of operation of my invention, together with the apparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof; but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried out by other means.

What I claim as new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. Means for preventing the rolling of a steamship comprising a vertical shaft turbo generator mounted to act as a gyroscopic steadying device.

2'. A gyroscopic anti-rolling device for ships, comprising a vertical shaft turbogenerator mounted on trunnions whose axis 18 athwartships.

3. In a system of ship propulsion comprising electric motors for driving the propellers, a turbo-generatwof the vertical shaft type mounted to swing in a fore and aft plane and yieldingly connected to the hull.

4. A gyroscopic anti-rolling device for ships, comprising a vertical shaft turbogenerator mounted on trunnions whose axis is athwartships, and bufi'ers connected to the frame of said turbo-generator.

5 A gyroscopic anti-rolling device for ships, comprising a vertical shaft turbogenerator having a condenser base, tubu I on the plane of the axis on which the malar trunnions for supporting said machine on an axis athwart the ship, means for supplying steam to the turbine through one of said trunnions, and means for leading off the products of condensation through the other.

6. A gyroscopic anti-rolling device for ships, comprising a vertical shaft turbogenerator having a condenser base, tubular trunnions supporting said machine on an axis athwartships, a centrifugal pump at the bottom of said base and driven by the turbine shaft, a steam mainconnected to one of said trunnions, and a pipe from said pump discharging through the other trunnion.

7. A gyroscopic anti-rolling device for ships, comprising a vertical shaft turbogenerator having a condenser base and mounted to swing in a fore and aft plane, a tank in which said base is submerged, and means for supplying said tank with cooling water.

8. A gyroscopic anti-rolling device for ships, comprising a vertical shaft turbogenerator having a condenser base and mounted to swing in a fore and aft plane, a tank in which said base is submerged, means for supplying said tank with cooling water, and a septum on said condenser base dividing said tank into two compartments chine swings.

9. 'A gyroscopic anti-rolling device for ships, comprising a vertical shaft turbogenerator mounted to swing in a fore and aft plane, the turbine having a single bucket wheel of large diameter.

, 10. A gyroscopic anti-rolling device for ships, comprising a vertical shaft turbo generator mounted to swing in a fore and aft plane, the turbine having a single bucket wheel of large diameter arranged to rotate at a peripheral speed of one-half the velocity of the steam delivered to its buckets.

11. The combination with a steamship, of pedestals at ,either side "of the hull, a horizontal late havin tubular trunnions journaled in said pe estals, a condenser suspended from said plate, an electric generator supported on said plate, a shaft passing vertically through said condenser, plate and generator, a bucket wheel on said shaft in the upper part of said condenser, .and a hearing at the upper end of the generator casing from which said shaft is suspended.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this th day of Sept, 1913.

ELIHU THOMSON.

Witnesses:

JOHN A. MCMANUS, J r., ROBERT 'SHAND.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Iatents, Washington, D. 0.

It is hereby certified that in LetterePatent No. 1,093,459 granted April 14,

1914, uponthe application of Elihu Thomson, of'Swampseott, Massachusett s, for an improvementin Turbo Ship-Sbeadying Devices, an error appears in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: Page 1, line 106, after the worq pipe insert the referencenumeral 21; and that the said Letters Petent should be read with this correction'therein that the same may conform to the reeord of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 12th day of May, A. D., 1914.

J. T. NEWTON, A cting Oomrfiisaioner of Patents. 

